Fran Muñoz: “I would present myself as a complete rider. I’m not afraid of any course”

With Francisco Muñoz, another of the additions to the U23 team of the Contador Foundation for the 2022 season, we must begin with a nuance related to his second surname: Llana, and not Llama as we mistakenly stated on the day of the announcement of the squad, is the maternal surname of this Catalan cyclist whose love affair with cycling began during a summer holiday in Galicia.

Muñoz (24 June 2001) is a very consistent rider with no specific taste in terms of routes. “I would present myself as a complete rider. I don’t shy away from any course. I manage whatever they put in front of me. I’ve never had any particular problems going uphill, apart from the logical suffering; I also consider myself strong on other terrains. In general, I like hard races, with complicated routes. I like elimination races, selection races. Races like Aitzondo, Legazpi or some of the ones we have done this year on the Catalan Cycling Federation’s Great Classics circuit”, he says.

It all started on holiday. “At home we had no cycling tradition. One summer, spending our holidays in Galicia, we went out cycling with my older brother and we had a great time. On the way back home to Mataró, I went to the velodrome to see how I could continue. That year I was a second year child. And from then until now, although my parents didn’t like me doing road racing at first because of all the traffic and road safety issues. I started competing on my own, then I was with Paco Gálvez. As a first year junior I raced for Huesca La Magia, which no longer exists, and then to Club Ciclista Mollet for my second year in the category”.

It was at the Mollet del Vallés club that he experienced his turning point. “That year, in 2019, I won the Catalan Cup in my category. It was the first year in which I started to train every day, to dedicate myself more specifically to cycling, and good results started to come. I made the leap to the U23 category with Team Compak, Team MP Group this season”.

One of Fran Muñoz’s particularities is his studies. The Barcelona native is studying Industrial Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona. “It’s hard, nobody said it would be easy. I’m going little by little. Now I’m in the first four months of the second year. In winter I try to register for everything, even if I don’t get all my subjects. Towards spring and summer there starts to be more travel, more days away…”.

What does Muñoz expect from the season? “To make the jump to professionalism, which is the dream we all have. And of course we will do everything we can to achieve it”.